Red Cloaks
by Something.Myffic
Summary: It's dyed with the blood of cheeky little girls.....
1. Introduction

_He told her, "It will be dyed a new color..."_


	2. Chapter 2

Red told the little girl, the nosy one, that her cloak was dyed with the blood of cheeky little girls. Her companions laughed, or got as close as they could to laughing in the presence of an apparent psychopath,

Red is glad they laughed.

It means they didn't think she was serious. It means they won't press for details. It means she will be left alone, thank god for peace and quiet.

Red says she does not believe in God. She does not thank him for peace and quiet.

Sometimes, in the night, when it's all dark and there is nothing but guilt left, she curses him for it.


	3. Chapter 3

They are walking, the cat and the girl and Red. Red hates, hates, hates the cat. It dresses up in human clothes and speaks smart and acts like a person when really it is not. She likes it when the cat is scared of her.

She knows the cat will never be strong enough to eat her up. She knows this, but when she first saw the cat a thrill of fear ran down her back and Red was _afraid. _So she covered it, she acted the crazy woman, she hid in her created persona.

It would have been genius if she didn't worry sometimes she is getting lost in the Red that the princess and the cat knew. It would have been the perfect way to hide, if she wasn't worried that she would not be able to find her way out of her hiding spot someday.

On the nights when Red believes in God and curses him, she rolls over in bed and cries, and prays that she can stay herself.


	4. Chapter 4

. . . But God, or whatever is up there, even if it is just a hungry mouth. . .

These little hands are cold.

So whose hands are these, the little tar-baby sticky black hands in the witch's stomach? Are they the hands of the children, or the witch, or Little Red herself, pulling this new-and-unimproved Red into somewhere they can keep the world safe from her?

The world need protecting from new Red. Red knows this, and she does not care. What she knows is that she once needed protecting from the world, and it did nothing. So now she will do nothing, and see how the world likes being at her mercy.

And so, with a slash of metal, life returns, reborn from her third almost-womb, born once, killed once, released and reborn. Red will not rely on woodsmen anymore, woodsmen who come too late. Now Red relies on Red, who most of the time she thinks she can trust.

Most of the time. Except sometimes she betrays herself, with a word or a glance or anything that puts a crack in the shell. Most of the time, except for when children are devoured and she remembers Little Red, who was innocent and died and became Red, who is tough and cruel. Not who Little Red wanted to be, but Red survived. Most of the time, except for when atheism is not enough and she believes someone up there is out to get her, or eat her, or both.

So the witch's stomach yawns open, and Red is reborn into the light, cloak dyed fresh, bright, bloody red once again.


	5. Chapter 5

Later, much later, Red asks the princess and the cat if they believed her when she said her cloak way dyed with the blood of cheeky little girls.

They laugh, very, very nervously. And they say No, why? You were joking, right? You couldn't do that. You wouldn't kill little kids, Red.

She says, I didn't kill any little kids. It's just little-kid blood. Little-girl blood. The little girl is dead now.

The cat laughs. The princess looks scared. The cat says, Don't scare November like that. November, she's joking.

Red says, Of course I'm joking. Joking, it isn't blood. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Ha.


	6. Chapter 6

The cat always walks too close to Red. Anywhere within a mile of her would be too close, for an animal that walks on two legs and pretends it is human. However it walks so close it is uncomfortable, like it is her friend, until she feels it is going to pounce on her.

Red the mouse wants to save herself from the cat, but the only way to run seems to be the looming wire trap ahead of her.

There is bait in the trap, but in this cat's mouth is honey, and Red is not sure which way is best to die.

No. She will not be eaten again. Best to end it on her own terms, with no culinary satisfaction for this cat in human clothes.


	7. Chapter 7

Red ignores the enquiring honey-coated mouth beside her and dashes into the trap.

It was hers, the dye for the cloak. Cheeky little girls, well, yes, and Little Red had been the cheekiest. So the wolf said, It will be dyed a new color, your pretty white cloak.

Red was not always Red. Once, she was Red only by name and not by design. Once, the cloak was white.

Too bad Little Red was a cheeky little girl. Too bad the cloak turned red. Too bad that the white disappeared with the innocence.

As she suffocated in the red heat of the wolf's stomach, she thought, Help me.

As she suffocated in the red heat of the witch's stomach, she thought, Help yourself.

So we progress, Red thinks, but is it progress? She's gone from damsel in distress (And how she envies the princess for getting that position!) to huntress, a woman who can take care of herself.

She wishes, sometimes, that she couldn't take care of herself. That she could be sure that someone would always save her. That the woodcutter would always be in the nick of time. But this is so rarely the case, and Red is so sure that nobody is watching her from above or indeed wants her safe that she has given up on that.

However, on the really dark nights, when wolves stalk through hot pulsing red dreams...

She prays and curses God by turns, wishing for something besides an axe to fall back on.


End file.
